What’s happening to our maples?
The maples have steadily looked worse this year, thinning on one side, seems to be happening in the entire neighborhood, any ideas? The maples run down an entire street.
Clackamas County Oregon trees and shrubs
4 Responses
Thank you for your question. Maple trees are susceptible to a number of soil fungi, including verticillium wilt, which causes ‘flagging,’ the loss of the tree limb by limb. Here is a description of it: https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/maple-acer-spp-verticillium-wilt You can get testing to diagnose the problem at the OSU Plant Clinic: https://bpp.oregonstate.edu/plant-clinic I hope this is helpful. Good luck!
Tree decline may be due to a number of reasons. This page from the PNW Handbook describes possibilities, and in a street tree situation like this, hiring a certified arborist to evaluate trees is generally recommended. https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/pathogen-articles/common/tree-decline https://pnwisa.org/hire-an-arborist/
I had a tree company come out and confirmed vert wilt, need to remove 3 trees and treat the remaining ones.
most of them have the problem on north side, away from the street. The same problem can be seen in neighborhood.